Announcement that Mike Oldfield is re-releasing Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn as deluxe packages. There will also be a re-release of Tubular Bells at the same time with more package options. Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn are 3 disc sets that includes a DVD of surround sound versions of the album. Not clear what 5.1 options there will be on the disc, may only be Dolby 5.1. Anyway, release date is June 8th, 2010. Supposedly Mike himself has also remastered the tracks from his home in the Bahamas. More information on mikeoldfield.org/news

Wow!! This is wonderful news. I think Ommadawn is Mike Oldfield at his peak; and it is easily one of my "deserted island" choices. I hope there is sufficient demand for these that will lead to later releases getting the surround treatment (Five Miles Out in particular, also QE2).

I broke down and ordered these to Canada from the Amazon UK site, which works out to 1/2 price of ordering from Amazon US or Amazon CA.

I loathe the fact that these surround mixes are delivered to us in the lowest possible manner, Dolby 448 Kbps (okay they could have gone with a slightly lower bitrate, but for all intents and purposes this is crap for music), but I need to hear them.

I will probably give them a once through and then sell them. Maybe it will take another couple years, but I can't imagine these won't resurface on Blu-ray Audio at some point. All that work to create a surround mix and then Dolby? It's so incongrous in the face of the previous SACD and DVD-A releases of TB and TB2003.